Olden Era Necropolis Build Guide — Best Hero Skills & Strategy

Onkos is the premier Necropolis starting hero and the strongest skeleton-archer snowball choice in the current meta. His specialty grants +2 skeleton growth per week in town, +1 Speed and Initiative to all skeletons, +20% skeleton HP, and +1 Attack/Defense per 3 hero levels. Enemy skeletons suffer reverse penalties. This means your skeleton archers not only multiply faster through Necromancy but also shoot harder, move faster, and survive longer. Pick Onkos when you want the most consistent, scalable build — he accelerates through week one clear speed and remains strong through late game.

Marl is the tempo king. Starting with Logistics gives him superior map mobility from turn one, and his Web specialty starts at Masterful level affecting ALL enemies. This means every combat opens with a full enemy slowdown, letting your skeleton archers fire 2-3 volleys before melee contact. Combined with Logistics for more battles per week, Marl can clear maps faster than Onkos in the early game but scales slightly less into the late game. Best on large maps where movement advantage compounds.

King-of-Kings runs the Undead Transformer abuse strategy — widely considered the strongest economic army-building plan in Olden Era. His Charisma specialty preserves your entire army when fleeing neutral fights, adds +5% persuasion chance (+1% per 4 levels), and enables the Diplomacy → Undead Transformer → skeleton army pipeline. Collect neutral joiners with Diplomacy, convert everything non-undead through the Transformer, and hand the resulting undead units to your main hero. King-of-Kings generates the largest armies of any Necropolis hero by mid-game.

Funerella starts with Advanced Necromancy — the only hero who does — giving her an immediate 15% conversion rate from battle one. Her specialty adds +5% Necromancy power (+1% per 4 levels), pushing conversion rates higher than any other hero. In long matches with high battle counts, Funerella generates the most skeletons of any hero. Her weakness is a slower week one since she lacks Offense or Logistics, but her scaling is unmatched for marathon games.

Oona specializes in control through Night Magic. Her Sleep spell can neutralize the most dangerous enemy stack for multiple turns, letting skeleton archers eliminate threats one at a time. Night spells gain +1 level (+1 per 10 hero levels), and enemies cannot cast Night spells against her. Ideal when early neutral camps contain fast melee units that would reach your archers before turn 3 — Sleep buys the time needed.

Mag turns Necropolis into a spell-damage faction in the early game. Arcane spells gain +1 level (+1 per 10 hero levels), cannot be cast by enemy heroes, and are unrestricted. This means Magic Arrow and similar damage spells deal significantly more damage, letting Mag clear neutral camps that would overwhelm a weaker early army. Best when the map has tough early neutral stacks that out-stat your starting skeletons.

Zam solves the Mercury bottleneck. His Alchemy specialty provides +1 Mercury per day (+1 per 5 levels) and doubles Mercury found on the map. Since Vampires, Liches, and Graverobbers all require Mercury for construction and recruitment, Zam enables faster access to mid and high-tier units. A utility pick — weaker in direct combat but accelerates your tech tree like no other hero.

• Day 1: Build Crypts and Graves II immediately to unlock the Skeleton Archer dwelling. If starting with Onkos, you can delay other buildings and focus on gold economy since his specialty already buffs skeletons.
• Upgrade all existing Skeletons to Skeleton Archers as soon as gold allows (10 gold per unit). A stack of 100 skeletons costs 1,000 gold to upgrade — the best investment in week one.
• Fight every neutral camp rated Easy or Normal. Skeleton Archers should fire from the back row while taking zero melee damage. Avoid Hard camps unless you have Web (Marl) or Sleep (Oona) to control the engagement.
• Assign a second hero by Day 7 to scout, collect external dwelling creatures, and feed the Undead Transformer. A courier hero is mandatory — Necropolis cannot afford a single-hero strategy past week one.
• Build the Undead Transformer (1,000 gold, 5 Wood, 5 Ore) as soon as you have non-undead creatures from external dwellings. Conversion is free and transforms any non-undead creature into undead of the matching tier.
• Save law points for creature growth laws affecting Skeletons. Any law that increases skeleton weekly production compounds with Onkos' specialty and Necromancy conversion.

• Your skeleton archer stack should now number 300-500 units. This is your primary damage dealer — protect it at all costs. Position Wights and Graverobbers as a frontline buffer to prevent enemies from reaching your archers.
• The Undead Transformer loop reaches full speed: Main hero clears camps → Courier hero collects external dwelling creatures → Diplomacy persuades neutrals → Undead Transformer converts everything → converted undead join main army.
• Build toward Graverobbers, then Liches. Graverobbers (Merchant of Death / Kennelmaster) summon free skeletons, wraiths, and undead pets mid-battle, creating meat shields that protect your real units. Liches provide Rewind Death — 2 Focus to restore HP and revive fallen units, usable twice per battle.
• Push Necromancy to Expert by level 12-15. The jump from 15% to 20% conversion rate is a 33% increase in skeletons raised per battle — the biggest single power spike in the faction's progression.
• Build a Marketplace and trade surplus resources for Mercury. Every Vampire you want to recruit costs 1 Mercury on top of gold. Without Mercury, your high-tier unit production stalls.
• Start using Focus points exclusively on Lich's Rewind Death and Eternal Service. Never waste Focus on Heroic Strike — Necropolis has the strongest Focus sinks in the game and misuse costs you units.

• With Expert Necromancy and Eternal Service unlocked, every battle generates significant skeleton reinforcements AND lets you revive fallen units. Your army now grows even in tough fights that cause losses — a feedback loop no other faction can match.
• Vampires (Vampire Lord / Vampire Scholar) become your elite sustain unit. Vampire Lords drain life with every attack, while Vampire Scholars heal allies with absorbed HP and trigger corpse explosions for AoE damage. In the current lifesteal-heavy meta, Vampires are among the strongest tier 6 units in the game.
• Dread Knights (Harbinger of War) serve as your tier 7 carry stack. Their double-strike ability makes them the single highest damage dealer against most factions. Combined with Nightshade support, a Dread Knight stack can solo-clear large neutral camps.
• Your skeleton archer stack should now number 1,000-2,000+ units. At this scale, skeletons one-shot most tier 4-5 units. Focus on keeping them alive with Lich revives and Eternal Service — losing this stack late game can cost you the match.
• Multi-hero coordination becomes critical. Your main hero fights, a second hero runs Transformer logistics, and a third hero provides reinforcements from town. Set up Remote Footholds at key map positions to enable rapid army handoffs.
• Law points should now be spent on compounding skeleton growth, Necromancy power amplification, and Mercury income to sustain your high-tier unit production.

Fix: Without a tier-1 ranged option, week one fights turn into melee trades the faction cannot afford. Upgrade skeletons immediately.

Fix: Necromantic Energy is finite and gated weekly. Toggle Necromancy off when saving energy for higher-tier raises. Raises fail without the unit type in your army.

Fix: Costs only 1,000 gold, 5 Wood, and 5 Ore. Unlocks the Diplomacy-to-conversion pipeline that generates more units than any other source. Build it as soon as you have non-undead creatures.

Fix: Lich Rewind Death, Eternal Service, and Graverobber summons are worth 3-5x more than a basic Heroic Strike. Save Focus for sustain and revive abilities.

Fix: Necropolis requires at least two heroes: one for combat and one for logistics (external dwellings, Transformer runs, resource collection). A single hero cannot cover the map efficiently.

Fix: Without Mercury, you cannot build Graverobber, Lich, or Vampire dwellings. Build a Marketplace early, trade surplus resources, and prioritize Mercury laws.